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Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hits and Flops
Peter Filichia discusses his new book at B/N Lincoln Center
Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season 1959-2009, author Peter Filich.
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Spiderman, the most expensive musical in Broadway history is a month away from opening, and you have to wonder will it be a hit or miss? It happens every season, Broadway has a few hit musicals, but many more flops.
In his latest book, Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit and the Biggest Flop of the Season 1959-2009, author Peter Filich looks at the extreme cases from each season of the past half-century. The musicals that everyone knew would be hits – The Sound of Music, The Phantom of the Opera, The Producers – and were hits.
The musicals that sounded terrible from the moment they were announced – Via Galactica, The Civil War, Lestat — and turned out to be even worse than expected.
The shows that were a sure fire hit – Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Merrily We Roll Along — but flopped.
The ones that did not stand a chance – Man of La Mancha, 1776, Grease — but went on to hold a place in pop culture.
Peter chats with actor Jim Brochu about his new book, which explores musical theater’s highs and lows over the last five decades. special musical guests performer Jake Wesley Stewart and cabaret star Steve Ross.
PETER FILICHIA is a theater critic in print for the Star-Ledger in Newark, and on television for News 12 New Jersey. He also writes Peter Filichia’s Diary for theatermania.com, and every Tuesday writes a column for masterworksbroadway.com. He wrote the weekly column entitled Stagestruck for Theater Week magazine for its entire nine-year run, and for three years on Playbill-on-Line. He is the author of Let’s Put on a Musical, now in its third printing. His most recent book is Broadway Musicals: The Biggest Hit of the Season / The Biggest Flop of the Season: The Last 50 Years, and his next book, Broadway Musicals: The Most Valuable Players will be published in 2011.
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Barnes and Noble/ Lincoln Triangle
1972 Broadway